#724 - Excerpt from Crash the Chatterbox by Steven Furtick

"Insecurity is insidious.  So it cloaks itself in the guise of comparison.  Nothing can kill contentment and feed insecurity like comparison.  And now, more than any other time in history, we live in a culture of incessant comparison.

...We have instant access to the lives of those we know, those we don't, those we can't stand, those we wish we were, those we'd give anything to measure up to.

Well, we don't exactly have access to their lives.  We have access to the parts of their lives they'd like us to see.  Nobody post the shot of Tommy karate chopping his little brother in the sternum or Mandy rolling her eyes at her mom and slamming the door because she's not allowed to go to the movies at nine o'clock.  Instead, people post the shot of Tommy holding the game ball or Mandy accepting the dance competition trophy.  And the chatterbox uses all of this - the images we see of who we think others are and what we thing they're doing - to make us feel we're boring by comparison.  Even worthless.

This is one of the main reasons we struggle with insecurity: we're comparing our behind the scenes with everybody else's highlight reel.

We know all too well the stuff in our lives that should disqualify us from God's love and keep us from fulfilling his purpose.  We know that we're disorganized, irritable, and easily distracted.  We internalize out defects and infer that we're the only one's who struggle with these things.

But remember: every weakness you know about yourself, God know in greater detail than you could ever imagine.  He knows the defect as well as what causes the defect.

But God says you are something different from your defects - something far more than your flaws.

Before you were born - before any of your defects were apparent to you - they were absolutely apparent to God.  That didn't stop Him from calling your name and setting you apart.  He placed you on the earth at a certain time for a pre-decided purpose.

And even when you can't seem to get your act together, your identity is secure and completely intact.  Because in Christ, who you are matters infinitely more than anything you do or cannot do."

Excerpt from Crash the Chatterbox by Steven Furtick